S-20 Raven Takes Inaugural Flight

SEELEY LAKE – After more than 1,350 hours over the past two and a half years, Seeley Lake residents Erik Gullikson and Bob Thorne's two-seater S-20 Raven experimental airplane lifted off for the first time Monday, May 14. Both are excited to be in the air again after selling their other plane in April 2015.

Thorne and Gullikson have both been flying since the mid-1970s. Thorne started flying as a jet pilot in the Marine Corps. He retired from Delta as a commercial airline pilot.

Gullikson started with fixed-wing but after becoming an aircraft mechanic he switched to flying helicopters. When Gullikson retired he owned Air Link Incorporated flying helicopter Emergency Medical Services and mountain rescue missions in and around Idaho Falls, Idaho. He continued to do maintenance work throughout his entire flying career.

Thorne and Gullikson decided to go in as partners and ordered their kit from Rocky Mountain Kitplanes in December 2014. They started working on their new side-by-side experimental plane out of Thorne's hanger at the Seeley Lake Airport in February 2015.

Thorne said they spent a lot of time researching and studying before actually constructing.

"We got good advice from a friend early on: read and understand the whole page before you start building," Thorne said. "The learning curve for me was huge. The biggest thing I learned was patience. Would I have liked to be finished earlier, yeah, but I would rather take the time and do it right,"

"There isn't a thing on this that I hadn't done before, I just hadn't done it all at once," added Gullikson. "There was a lot of head scratching. Was it right in the manual as opposed to what really needs to be done? The dealer down in Salt Lake helped get us lined out."

Most of the plane is fabric and carbon fiber. There is very little metal.

Gullikson said that it took him a week to build the doors. If the fabric was put on too tight, it could collapse the metal because it shrunk 12 percent when heat was applied.

"It's just one bolt at a time and sometimes the bolt doesn't fit and you need to figure out why," said Gullikson.

Gullikson said that they didn't have any parts left over except for when they decided to build something a little stronger or a little nicer.

"Some of the stuff to me as a professional is this is adequate but I would like a little more than adequate," said Gullikson.

Gullikson said painting the six coats of primer and five coats of white paint was the hardest part of the job for him.

"I'm not a painter," said Gullikson. "I knew I wasn't going to paint the stripes."

Gullikson and Thorne wanted a design that was simple, yet eloquent, that flowed. They worked with Big Bear Sign and Gullikson's wife Kris to design the stripes, tail wrap and wingtips.

They both liked the color on their old Beechcraft Bonanza. The day they had to decide on the color it happened to fly into Seeley Lake so they were able to match the color perfectly with the color chart.

"We wouldn't have picked right which I thought was surprising," said Thorne.

They were a part of an online support group, they collaborated with Glen Mathis, a friend of theirs from Texas, who was also building an aircraft at the time. They also relied heavily on their dealer Mark Pringle in Salt Lake.

"He's done this for more than 25 years. He was great to work with," said Thorne.

For Thorne, his biggest challenge was keeping Gullikson from killing him.

"But I really enjoyed getting in his way," said Thorne laughing. "He's the brains, I'm the pretty boy."

Gullikson said the average build time is 10 years. In 30 months, spending an average of 10 hours per week, they had the plane up and running. The plane was inspected Nov. 8. Being evacuated for more than 50 days during the Rice Ridge fire and the early winter weather kept the plane on the ground until the inaugural flight May 14. Pringle and Thorne were the first to fly it.

"I knew the plane was so well built and I was very confident in the company that we bought it from," said Thorne. "It was nerve wracking because we just spent two and half years and 1350 hours and you don't want to mess it up."

"I was glad to see it fly... and keep on flying!" said Gullikson who watched from the ground as it took off for the first time.

Gullikson then went up with Pringle. They have each logged five hours in the plane. They both commented how quickly it took off, requiring only 300-400 feet for take-off and landing. There are only a few minor adjustments they want to make to the plane.

They are 16 hours into their 40 hours of testing. They must stay within a radius of 150 miles from Seeley Lake during the Phase 1 testing. Once the aircraft meets the 40 hours of flying, they will be able to carry passengers and are no longer restricted to the local area.

"It's a long tedious process and you just have to take your time and go slow," said Thorne. "There is a lot. But it was a lot of fun. I've always wanted to do it and I'm glad I did."

Gullikson added, "It felt pretty good to make a flight logbook entry again. My last flight as pilot in command was April 2014. It will be nice to get back in the air again after such a long time."